I had a very busy, but exciting weekend. Had another book release party for Ballads at one of my favorite bookstore's, Women and Children First in Chicago. Also we had a luau at the Beacon, the bar where I work, this weekend and I got all dressed up for it:

This Saturday another fun event is coming up for me. I'm reading with Joe Meno, Megan, Stielstra and Billy Lombardo and there will also be some great music at the Old School Town of Folk Music in Chicago at 8 pm. For all the details and tickets, go here.

Before we get to today's amazing blog, I got a review I'm really proud of from the Pop Culture Junkie, wherein she compares my book to one I'm reading and adoring right now, Wintergirls. So that was a huge compliment. Also here's an interview I did with the Reading Nook and if you comment, you'll be entered to win a copy of Ballads. And I did an interview with today's guest Melissa Walker, who is also running contest, this one for a signed copy of Ballads. Speaking of contests....

Today's Winner:

Each day I am announcing the winner of the contest that was posted one week earlier. Today's winner gets both books in the Frenemies series from Alexa Young! And that winner is... BrittLit from blogger! I will email you for your address shortly! Remember to enter last week's contests! Each contests lasts one week!

Now, today's guest blogger is author Melissa WalkerMelissa Walker is the author of Violet on the Runway, Violet by Design and Violet in Private. Her latest book is Lovestruck Summer. She has worked as ELLEgirl Features Editor and Seventeen Prom Editor. All in the name of journalism, she has spent 24 hours with male models and attended an elite finishing school for girls in New Zealand, among other hardships. In late 2008, she launched I Heart Daily with fellow ex-ELLEgirl Anne Ichikawa. It's a daily newsletter about likable stuff. Melissa lives in Brooklyn and has a BA in English from Vassar College. You can find her at http://www.melissacwalker.com/

Here's Melissa's ballad:

Today's Contest:Sorry I always post the emotionally intense blogs on Monday. I just like to start the week with something powerful and this one definitely was. Melissa has agreed to give out a copy of her latest, Lovestruck Summer to one lucky winner. To enter just leave a comment about Melissa's vlog. You'll earn additional entries by blogging/tweeting/etc about this blog or the cyber launch party or the interview that Melissa did with me about the Ballads cover (which I'll tell you about in a second). Just note your additional entries in your comment. Winner will be chosen at random on Monday, August 3rd.

As I mentioned, Melissa interviewed me about the cover of Ballads of Suburbia. You can check that out here and if you comment you will be entered to win a signed copy of Ballads!

Tomorrow's Guest:

Tomorrow, Vanessa Barneveld, one of my lovely critique partners will be guest-blogging. So please come back to see what she has to say!

19 comments:

I don't really remember 9/11 (I lived in England at the time and was only 9), but hearing people talk about it always seems to make me shiver. I can't really explain why, but it does.

I wrote a piece about the four years I spent in Singapore a while ago. It's kind of like a journal, since it's about something close to my heart. Here's a short extract:

Singapore. Where most of my best friends live. Where I spent the last, most amazing, four years of my life. So many people have so many different memories of Singapore, but I’ve never met anyone who disliked it. It is, in my opinion, the best city in the world. In fact, it is the only city I like, because I am a country girl and find cities confusing, dirty and entirely too busy. Singapore is nothing like any other city I’ve been to, and I love it for that, as well as too many other things to name.

That was very touching and intense, I live in Brooklyn, New York so I understand the feelings she went through...Manhattan will never be the same without them...or the people who have lost their loves ones...wow what a way to start, very emotional!

I remember 9/11 so vividly, as I watched the live footage of the second plane, I was sure they were rebroadcasting the first plane until the first tower was shown smoking. It was a horrible day in the lives of Americans, I wondered how I was going to explain it to my small children. The schools had shielded them all day, but there was no escaping the constant news on TV. It was horrible and shocking, trying to get hold of friends. Hearing from them, traumatize from first the planes, then watching falling pieces of debris that wasn't actually debris, and the collapse of the towers. I don't know how New Yorkers continued after that day. Our country has forever been changed by the events of that one solitary day.

I remember being in school on 9/11. I was 11 when it happened. All the teachers were turning on the TVs, which they never did, and parents of people who had relatives in New York City were coming to pick their kids up. It's amazing that it was almost 8 years ago, but when you think about it it's as if it were last week, which is kinda sad.

I was at home during 9/11 and my husband came in and told me what happened. I was horrified and spent the rest of the day glued to the TV. My brother had just come home from the US two days back and it freaked me out to think that it could easily have been his plane.

i remember September 11th so well.i was in first grade.it was just a week or two after school started, and we were having reading time.and then the principal came on the intercom and told us we were going to be dismissed from school.everyone was so excited, but i remember knowing something was wrong. i mean, i was six years old, what did i know?but i knew.i remember going outside and seeing my dad. my dad never came to get me. he told me my mom was stuck at work. i didn't understand that. but we went home. my dad wouldn't let me turn on the TV. we just sat at my dining room table, waiting for it to all settle in.but i wasn't sure what was settling in.i just knew something was right.and that's the truth.that day, for those few hours, everything was so wrong. everything just fell apart.

I was home sick that day. I was watching tv and also saw the live feed when the second plane hit. I was young, and didn't really have an idea about what was happening, but my aunt said, "This is something that you'll remember your whole life." She was right.

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I'm a punk rock girl originally from the Midwest. I've read obsessively since I learned how and have considered myself a serious writer since I started writing poems about unrequited love and razor blades in 8th grade. Eventually I moved on to writing riot grrrl zines in high school, and finally serious story and novel writing at Columbia College Chicago. I've published two YA novels, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE and BALLADS OF SUBURBIA, both are from MTV Books. I'm a staff writer for Rookie magazine. I recently moved to Seattle, WA, with my two kitties and awesome husband. Welcome to the place where I babble about writing, music, and life in general!